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Abbas Knows Racism

Acting President of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mahmoud Abbas took the podium at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2014. In the speech which covered many attacks on Israel, he repeatedly called the country “racist”:

“the third war waged by the racist occupying State in five years against Gaza,”

“[Palestinian] legitimate right to resist this colonial, racist Israeli occupation”

“racist and armed gangs of settlers persisted with their crimes against the Palestinian people”

“the subjugation of the racist settlers and army of occupation, and at worst will be a most abhorrent form of Apartheid.”

“terrorism by the racist occupying Power and its settlers”

“an attempt to give a religious nature to the conflict and with the rising and rampant racism in the Israeli political and media discourse”

“This culture of racism, incitement and hatred”

The video below gives a long review of Israel’s policies and compares them to the policies of not just the surrounding Arab countries, but to democracies around the world. The comparison does not just act as a rebuttal and defense to the charge, but highlights laws that many countries have against Muslims which do not exist in Israel.

But that video is really meant for western viewers who might think they come from non-racist countries and who thereby feel empowered to rebuke Israel. For Abbas to make the charge of racism against Israel can either be viewed as laughable, or as an insightful criticism as it comes from an expert.

Palestinian Racism

Abbas’s charge of racism spans the entirety of Israeli society: the State is racist; the “occupation” is racist; the settlers are racist; the military is racist; Israeli politics and media are racist; and the culture is racist. How does the Palestinian Authority do in these categories?

State is racist: Palestinian Authority has a law that condemns any Arab that sells land to a Jew to death. Universities bar entry to Jews. Gaza forbids UNRWA schools from teaching about the Holocaust.

The occupation is racist: Abbas has demanded a new country free of Jews.

Military is racist: Hamas charter calls for the killing of all Jews and the destruction of the Jewish State. Hamas states that the essence of the conflict is that Israel is Jewish and that Islam must destroy it. For its part, the entire Palestinian Authority regularly applauds murderers of Jewish civilians and names tournaments and squares after them.

Media is racist: The list is too long to review, but turn to MEMRI.org or PalWatch.org to see the vile anti-Semitic rants that Palestinians post on their televisions on a regular basis.

Culture is racist: Palestinians are the most anti-Semitic group on the planet, with 93% holding anti-Semitic views according to a poll in May 2014.

Abbas in his own words

No Jews: “we would not see the presence of a single Israeli – civilian or soldier – on our lands,” (2013)

Holocaust Denial: Abbas spent several years and completed his phd on Holocaust denial. The denial of the Holocaust is considered illegal in: Austria; Belgium; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Czech Republic; France; Germany; Hungary; Israel; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Spain; and Switzerland. He has continued to belittle the Holocaust with calling Israel “genocidal”, including in the UN speech in 2014.

· Denial of Jewish history: “The occupation authorities are continuing their efforts to achieve their final goal of Judaizing Jerusalem…whose purpose is to serve delusional myths and the arrogance of power. They imagine that by brute force they can invent a history, establish claims and erase solid religious and historical facts” (2014)

Denial of Jewish State: “I’ll never recognize Israel as a Jewish state.” (2014); “We shall never agree to recognize the Jewish state.” (2013); “I will never recognize the Jewishness of the state, or a “Jewish state.” (2011)

1988 Hamas charter: “In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised“; “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it,” http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp

Whilst there is racism in Israel, most lamentably being aimed at Ethiopian Jews and African refugees (falsely slandered as “infiltrators”), Abbas has no moral authority upon which to denounce Israel as inherently racist, given he basks in his anti-Semitic credentials. Anti-Semitism is a form of racism.